Waicaiwhosha

Browser Hijacker
by Lidia Howler
April 12, 2023

Waicaiwhosha

Waicaiwhosha is a page-redirecting and ad-displaying application of the browser hijacker type that can disturb your web surfing activity. Waicaiwhosha can spam your web browser with hundreds of sponsored pop-up ads and replace the browser’s search engine or the homepage without approval.

Waicaiwhosha
The Waicaiwhosha Virus will display pop up ads and notifications

If you are interested in the following article, you have probably been disturbed by certain browser-related issues (a change in the browser’s homepage, a new search engine) and a possible intrusive stream of ads, banners, and pop-ups on your screen. Before you give into panic, though, we should tell you that the cause for all these issues is a browser hijacker program called Waicaiwhosha.

Fortunately, in the next paragraphs, you can definitely find some instructions on how to deal with the disturbance and uninstall Waicaiwhosha from any of the browsers that have been affected. At the bottom of the page, we have published a removal guide that is suitable for Chrome, Firefox, Edge, Safari and other browsing apps and can help you quickly remove the browser hijacker and its unwanted components.

The Waicaiwhosha Virus

If you have never faced a program like Waicaiwhosha before, then you must be wondering what a browser hijacker is and how dangerous could it be. That’s why we should start by saying that a browser hijacker is a term used to describe software that produces ads. In order to operate, every browser hijacker integrates with the default web browser in the system and uses its screen to display different banners, pop-up ads, text messages, and sponsored links during the regular web browsing sessions.

SUMMARY:

NameWaicaiwhosha
TypeBrowser Hijacker
Detection Tool

Please follow all the steps below in order to remove Waicaiwhosha!

How to remove Waicaiwhosha

  1. First, click the Start Menu on your Windows PC.
  2. Type Programs and Settings in the Start Menu, click the first item, and find Waicaiwhosha in the programs list that would show up.
  3. Select Waicaiwhosha from the list and click on Uninstall.
  4. Follow the steps in the removal wizard.

If you have a Mac virus, please use our How to remove Ads on Mac guide.

If you have an Android virus, please use our Android Malware Removal guide.

If you have an iPhone virus, please use our iPhone Virus Removal guide.

What we suggest you do first is, check the list of programs that are presently installed on the infected device and uninstall any rogue software that you find there:

  • From the Start Menu, navigate to Control Panel ->>> Programs and Features ->>> Uninstall a Program.
  • Next, carefully search for unfamiliar programs or programs that have been installed recently and could be related to Waicaiwhosha.
  • If you find any of the programs suspicious then uninstall them if they turn out to be linked to Waicaiwhosha.
  • If a notification appears on your screen when you try to uninstall a specific questionable program prompting you to just alter it or repair it, make sure you choose NO and complete the steps from the removal wizard.

Remove Waicaiwhosha from Chrome

  1. Click on the three dots in the right upper corner
  2. Go to more tools
  3. Now select extensions
  4. Remove the Waicaiwhosha extension
  • Once you open Chrome, click on the three-dots icon to open the browser’s menu, go to More Tools/ More Options, and then to Extensions.
  • Again, find the items on that page that could be linked to Waicaiwhosha and/or that might be causing problems in the browser and delete them.
  • Afterwards, go to this folder: Computer > C: > Users > *Your User Account* > App Data > Local > Google > Chrome > User Data. In there, you will find a folder named Default – you should change its name to Backup Default and restart the PC.
  • Note that the App Data folder is normally hidden so you’d have to first make the hidden files and folders on your PC visible before you can access it.

How to get rid of Waicaiwhosha on FF/Edge/etc.

  1. Open the browser and select the menu icon.
  2. From the menu, click on the Add-ons button.
  3. Look for the Waicaiwhosha extension
  4. Get rid of Waicaiwhosha by removing it from extensions

If using Firefox:

  • Open Firefox
  • Select the three parallel lines menu and go to Add-ons.
  • Find the unwanted add-on and delete it from the browser – if there is more than one unwanted extension, remove all of them.
  • Go to the browser menu again, select Options, and then click on Home from the sidebar to the left.
  • Check the current addresses for the browser’s homepage and new-tab page and change them if they are currently set to address(es) you don’t know or trust.

If using MS Edge/IE:

  • Start Edge
  • Select the browser menu and go to Extensions.
  • Find and uninstall any Edge extensions that look undesirable and unwanted.
  • Select Settings from the browser menu and click on Appearance.
  • Check the new-tab page address of the browser and if it has been modified by “Waicaiwhosha” or another unwanted app, change it to an address that you’d want to be the browser’s new-tab page.

How to Delete Waicaiwhosha

  1. Open task manager
  2. Look for the Waicaiwhosha process
  3. Select it and click on End task
  4. Open the file location to delete Waicaiwhosha
  • Access the Task Manager by pressing together the Ctrl + Alt + Del keys and then selecting Task Manager.
  • Open Processes and there try to find a process with the name of the unwanted software. If you find it, select it with the right button of the mouse and click on the Open File Location option.
  • If you don’t see a “Waicaiwhosha” process in the Task Manager, look for another suspicious process with an unusual name. It is likely that the unwanted process would be using lots of RAM and CPU so pay attention to the number of resources each process is using.
  • Tip: If you think you have singled out the unwanted process but are not sure, it’s always a good idea to search for information about it on the Internet – this should give you a general idea if the process is a legitimate one from a regular program or from your OS or if it is indeed likely linked to the adware.
  • If you find another suspicious process, open its File Location too.
  • Once in the File Location folder for the suspicious process, start testing all of the files that are stored there by dragging them to our free online scanner available below.
  • Each file will be scanned with up to 64 antivirus programs to ensure maximum accuracy
    This scanner is free and will always remain free for our website's users.
    This file is not matched with any known malware in the database. You can either do a full real-time scan of the file or skip it to upload a new file. Doing a full scan with 64 antivirus programs can take up to 3-4 minutes per file.
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    • If the scanner finds malware in any of the files, return to the Processes tab in the Task Manager, select the suspected process, and then select the End Process option to quit it.
    • Go back to the folder where the files of that process are located and delete all of the files that you are allowed to delete. If all files get deleted normally, exit the folder and delete that folder too. If one or more of the files showed an error message when you tried to delete them, leave them for now and return to try to delete them again once you’ve completed the rest of the guide.

    How to Uninstall Waicaiwhosha

    1. Click on the home button
    2. Search for Startup Apps
    3. Look for Waicaiwhosha in there
    4. Uninstall Waicaiwhosha from Startup Apps by turning it off
    • Now you need to carefully search for and uninstall any Waicaiwhosha-related entries from the Registry. The easiest way to do this is to open the Registry Editor app (type Regedit in the windows search field and press Enter) and then open a Find dialog (CTRL+F key combination) where you have to type the name of the threat. 
    • Perform a search by clicking on the Find Next button and delete any detected results. Do this as many times as needed until no more results are found. 
    • After that, to ensure that there are no remaining entries lined to Waicaiwhosha in the Registry, go manually to the following directories and delete them:
    • HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Random Directory. 
    • HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersion/Run/Random
    • HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Microsoft/Internet Explorer/Main/Random

    What Waicaiwhosha can do?

    Many browser hijacker-based applications like Wigglewurm or Herofherlittl can also redirect the search queries of the users to some pre-defined web pages that pay for traffic and exposure. This is activity that is NOT malicious and helps the owners of the advertised websites to promote their content and to get user clicks.
    However, sometimes, the page redirects of programs like Waicaiwhosha can be seen as dubious because, in certain cases, web users may get redirected to questionable-looking websites or pages full of sketchy content. This can not only be very annoying, but could also come with the risk of landing on domains that have been compromised with some virus or malware such as Ransomware, Spyware or Trojans. Fortunately, this is rarely the case.
    Yet, the aggressive generation of pop-ups, banners and random adverts on every visited web page is often enough for the users to decide to uninstall the browser hijacker from their computer. Moreover, a lot of people desperately want to remove the new search engine or the sponsored homepage that the ad-generating software has imposed on their web browser.


    How to remove Waicaiwhosha

    Eliminating a program like Waicaiwhosha, however, is usually not an easy task. The nagging advertising application typically cannot be found under the Program Uninstall menu where most other programs are located. That’s why web users who want to deal with the browser hijacker effectively normally need the assistance of professional software that can scan the computer and detect the unwanted program. Such software can be found on this page and works best against browser hijackers like Waicaiwhosha, as well as some real system threats such as viruses, Ransomware, and Trojans. Alternatively, our set of manual steps below can also guide you in uninstalling this browser hijacker, as long as you detect the correct files to delete. So check them out and let us know the outcome.


    About the author

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    Lidia Howler

    Lidia is a web content creator with years of experience in the cyber-security sector. She helps readers with articles on malware removal and online security. Her strive for simplicity and well-researched information provides users with easy-to-follow It-related tips and step-by-step tutorials.

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